Mueller just abruptly reversed course on his bail agreement with Manafort

FILE
PHOTO: Manafort leaves U.S. Federal Court after being arraigned
on twelve federal charges in the investigation into alleged
Russian meddling, in WashingtonThomson Reuters

Special counsel Robert Mueller has abruptly withdrawn
support for a bail agreement he struck last week with Paul
Manafort's legal team.

Manafort failed to tell the government that he was
ghost-writing a draft op-ed about his work with Ukraine as late
as November 30, Mueller's team said.

Mueller's team argued that the op-ed, if published,
would have attempted to sway public opinion and undermined a
fair trial.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has abruptly reversed course on a
bail agreement his office
struck with Paul Manafort's legal team last week that would have
allowed him to be released from GPS monitoring.

Manafort evidently failed to tell the government that he was
ghost-writing a draft op-ed about his work in Ukraine as late as
November 30. He was working on it with "a longtime Russian
colleague" who is "assessed to have ties to Russian
intelligence," according to the special counsel's court filing.

That colleague was likely Konstantin Kilimnik, a
Russian-Ukrainian citizen and longtime protege of Manafort who he
had used as a liaison to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska during
the campaign.

A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment.

The government said that the court had initially "admonished"
Manafort's lawyer for making public statements to the press about
the case and on November 8 had barred both "the parties and
counsel from making statements that could interfere with" a fair
trial.

"Even if the ghostwritten op-ed were entirely accurate, fair, and
balanced, it would be a violation of this Court’s November 8
Order if it had been publish," the government argued. "The
editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public's
opinion of defendant Manafort, or else there would be no reason
to seek its publication."

The filing continued: "Because Manafort has now taken actions
that reflect an intention to violate or circumvent the court's
existing orders ... the government submits that the proposed bail
package is insufficiently reasonable to assure his appearance as
required. The government's prior general consent to the bail
package presupposed that Manafort was complying with the Court's
existing orders."

Manafort, who served as President Donald Trump's campaign manager
between April and August of 2016, was indicted in late October
alongside his longtime business associate Rick Gates on charges
that included money laundering, tax fraud, and failure to
register as a foreign agent.

The agreed-upon bail package would have required Manafort to
forfeit four of his properties in Virginia, Florida, and New
York — worth a combined $11.65 million — if he violated his bail
by attempting to travel internationally or anywhere outside of
Florida, Virginia, New York, and Washington, DC.

But the special counsel's office said in its court filing that
"the proposed bail package does not provide for a surety who is
not a close family member. It does not provide for GPS
monitoring. And it does not provide for a fully secured bond of
unencumbered real estate. The Bridgehampton property, which is
the largest of the assets in the proposed bail package, is
already subject to forfeiture in the Indictment."

A docket in the criminal case against Manafort and Gates,
unsealed earlier this month,
alleged that both men had received "millions of
dollars" from Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs that would allow
them "to live comfortably abroad" and therefore make them a
flight risk.

It was not immediately clear whether Manafort would still be
under house arrest, or if he would just be subject to continued
GPS monitoring. The government asked the court in its latest
filing that Manafort be required "to report to Pretrial Services
where he will be located during the upcoming week, including
details of any planned travel and where he will be staying."